An unconventional family
by strawberrycheese1990
Summary: When one of the Lewis children has an accident, it allows us a chance to take a peak into family life with this unconventional family.
1. Chapter 1

**Well the other great stories for Blue Murder on this site have led me to attempting to write something, so I hope you enjoy it. In this Charlotte is about 4 and has not yet started school. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Murder or anything related to it, I believe that all belongs to ITV and Cath Staincliffe. **

It was around lunchtime in the Greater Manchester polices incident room. It had been a quiet day so far for the murder investigation team. They had closed their latest case the day before, and therefore today was resigned to paperwork, budget reports, and an attempt to relax before the next case landed on their doorstep.

DI Richard Mayne, had just finished his writing his report, and was looking forward to a well deserved lunch break, with his friend and boss DCI Janine Lewis, who was currently in a meeting with the Chief Superintendant.

The DI was just tidying up his desk, when he was broken out of his daydreams by the ringing of his phone. Praying to a higher power that this was not a call about a body, he answered.

'DI Mayne...Hi Mandy, is everything alright... oh she left her phone in the office, why what's happened? ... Is she alright? ... No, no that's fine, we'll leave now, what hospital?...ok we'll be there as soon as we can, is she there?...hey, baby girl, are you alright?...oh I know its hurts baby, but mummy and I will be there as soon as we can, and Mandy tells me that you are being a big brave girl...you're at the hospital now? Ok well you go with Mandy and we'll see you soon, ok... love you to...hey Mandy, ok I'll let you go, we're just leaving, so be there in about half an hour, thanks, bye.'

Hanging up the phone, the inspector felt like he had aged 10 years in the space of one phone call. Looking up he was greeted with the inquisitive looks of his fellow detectives, all of whom has quite obviously listening in to his half of the phone conversation.

'Everything alright Guv' questioned the Kat the youngest member of the team.

'Yeah, look Janine and I need to leave for a while, Charlotte's in hospital, they think she's broke her arm. If anything comes in, call me, don't bother the boss ok.' Replied Richard whilst getting his things together ready to leave.

'Yeah sure' was the general reply, and without a further to-do, the DI left the incident room, and gathered the female DCI's coat and bag, before leaving the detective presence, leaving raised eyebrows and whispered comments in his wake.

Striding down the familiar corridors of the station, the worried DI made his way to DCS Hogg's office, not caring one iota about interrupting the meeting, as he knocked on the door, and entered.

'Yes how can I help DI Mayne' questioned the DCS in her usual scathing way.

'Sorry Ma'am, but Janine Charlotte's pre-school just called, she fell over and they think she broke her arm. Mandy's taken her to hospital, I said that were on our way.'

'Oh god is she alright?' answered the DCI, as she got up to make her way out of the room, totally ignoring the presence of her senior officer.

'Yeah, I talked to her, she seems ok, bit shaken of course, says that her arm hurt.'

'Sorry ma'am can we postpone this, thank you' and the pair left before Louise Hogg could even get a word out in reply. Leaving the officer in shock at the events of the last few minutes, but not totally surprised.

Richard and Janine quickly left the station, and thanks to the flashing blue light they got to the hospital in no time at all, although to the worried occupants of the car, every second dragged and felt like a minute.

Making their way to A&E, it wasn't long before they were directed to the curtained off cubicle that contained the injured Charlotte Lewis.

'Richardddd!' exclaimed the four year-old, happy to see him, but the red puffy eyes showing that it wasn't long since she had stopped crying, about what happened.

'Hey monkey, see I told you we'd be here.' Was the reply as he sat down on the hospital bed, and gently pulling the little girl into his arms.

'Where's mummy?'

'She's just coming, don't' worry, the doctor wanted to talk to her about how they are gonna make you feel better.'

'I fell off the slide and hurt my arm' pouted the little girl.

'I know, but the doctor is gonna make it all better soon, I promise.' And he tightened his grip on the girl and placed a kiss into her hair, just as the curtain opened again, admitting an upset Janine and a kind looking doctor.

Janine immediately on seeing her daughter, hurried over and sat next to Richard on the bed, before he carefully passed the little girl over to her mother.

'oh my baby are you alright?'

'My arm hurts mummy, but Mandy said that I've was such a big brave girl.'

'I'm sure you were, and this doctor here is gonna make it all better ok.' With that she, in an action that mimicked Richard's from only a minute ago, she hugged the little girl closer to her and placed a kiss on her forehead.

Looking up she made eye contact with Mandy, who up until this point had been sitting unacknowledged in the chair by the bed.

'Thank you, for bringing her.'

'That's ok, well now that you're here I better be heading back. So I'll see you soon Charlotte ok.'

The little girl raised her head from where it was snuggled up against her mother's chest. 'Bye-bye Mandy.'

And with that Mandy left the cubicle, allowing the doctor who had been silent during the family reunion, to begin.

'Hello, Charlotte, my name's James, can I have a look at you arm?'

The little girl shook her head. 'It hurts.'

'I know but I need to have a look at it, so that I can get it to stop hurting, is that ok?' the doctor gently explained.

The girl shook her head again. Realising that this could go on for a while, as the little girl was as stubborn as her mother at times, and he felt like he should be doing something, Richard stepped in.

'Hey Charlotte, how about this, you hold my hand while the doctor looks at your arm, and if it hurts you squeeze my hand real tight alright. After some deliberation the girl decided that, she could do that. So with her left hand firmly gripping Richard's, the doctor was able to finally examine her right arm.

After a few minutes of careful examination, the doctor had reached his conclusion.

'It's defiantly broken, we need an x-ray to see what how bad is the break, but from what I can see she shouldn't need any bones setting just a cast.' Turning to the little girl, 'So Charlotte, what we're going to do now is we're gonna get a special picture of you arm, so that we can see your bones.'

'Ok.' Came the sheepish reply.

'Does your arm still hurt?'

'Yep.'

'ok, I'm gonna go and get you some medicine to take the pain away ok, I'll be right back' And with that James the doctor left.

Within the next half an hour Charlotte had had her medicine, 'Yuck' and been down to x-ray.

'Ok, so we have got her x-ray back,' announced the doctor as he entered the cubicle, to the 2 adults and a very tired little girl, who thankfully wasn't in pain at the moment, just exhausted at the day's events. 'The arm is definitely broken, so what we need to do is put it in a cast for the next 6 weeks.'

'I broke my arm?' Came the uncertain question from the sleepy girl laid on the bed.

'Yes you did, you see here's that special picture we took of your arm. Now these two white lines are your bones in your arm, and you see this little black line here,' He said pointing out the features on the x-ray.

A nod from Charlotte

'Well that black line is where you broke your bone, so what we are going to do, is put your arm in a big plaster, so that it can better.'

An hour later and Charlotte had been discharged with a nice bright purple cast on her right arm, and a follow up appointment for a couple of weeks. The little girl in question was currently fast asleep in Richard's arms on her way to the car.

Just as everyone was buckled into the silver people carrier, a phone rung throughout the car.

'DI Mayne'

'_Hey, Guv the DCS is looking for you, I don't think she realised that you went with the boss' _came the voice of DS Shap from the other end.

'Ok,' he said with a sigh,' I'll be about 20 minutes; I just have to get my car from the Boss's place.'

'_Ok see you then, we'll stall her till then.'_

'Thanks' and with that he hung up.

'Who's that?' came the question from the passenger seat.

'Shap, Hogg's on the warpath, I've got to head back. So I'll take you home, and get my car from yours.' Was the reply as he pulled out of the parking space.

'Are you coming round tonight?'

'Yeah is that alright, I usually do.'

'Yeah I know I thought I'd just check.' Pause 'Richard, Thank you.'

Leaving only his right hand on the steering wheel, Richard reached over and grabbed Janine's hand. 'There's no need to thank me, you know that.'

'I know but still.'

And with that the journey continued in silence both in their own thoughts, their hands clasped firmly together except for a few painful moments when both hands were needed for driving

**AN: Ok that's all that I've got for now, I hope that you enjoyed it. I have some ideas on how to continue it, just having trouble linking it together, so if it wasn't completely awful and you wouldn't mind reading more then please tell me. **

**Other than that, thank you for reading. Please review. **


	2. Chapter 2

'Richard it doesn't do to put all your eggs in one basket. Now I understand that you have friends here, but things are changing and if I have my way they will change sooner rather than later.'

Richard had only just got into the office when he was called into the females DCS's office, and it as safe to say that this was not what he was expecting. Being remanded for leaving in the middle of a case, yes, but this cryptic conversation about his future was definitely not it.

'I'm sorry ma'am, but I like it here, I'm settled. I appreciate you looking out for me, but I would rather stay a DI and wait for a post in Manchester, than move elsewhere. I've done that before and it didn't quite work out. '

'Between you and me, chances are there is gonna be a DCI post coming up soon. The Assistant Commissioner is conducting a review of all senior personnel, and all I'm saying is that if you want to be considered, then it is a good idea to look interested. Also your experience at working with different officers is lacking, you need to work on that.'

'I'll think about it Ma'am, is that alright?'

'Certainly, now you better be heading back to work.'

Nodding his assent the detective made to leave.

'Oh by the way, have you heard from DCI Lewis.'

'Just that it's a broken arm. Is that all?'

'Yes, yes, you can go.'

The officer quickly left before he said something he's not sure he'll regret.

Better warn Janine to watch out, he thought, Hogg's up to something.

'Home time' sighed Richard. He'd only been back at work for about four hours but he couldn't wait to leave.

The case was going no-where, everyone was out of the office and he had to stop himself from ringing Janine multiple times just to check that everything was alright, and although he would never admit it allowed, to hear her voice.

Saying goodnight to the few odd members of staff present he made his way out of the station, and towards his dinner engagement, only making a quick stop on the way.

It was half seven and the Lewis household was begging to settle down for the night, slowly. In a pink bedroom a little girl was just getting tucked into bed.

A bright pink cast, obvious on one arm, under the other a soft brown teddy bear was tucked securely, as it had been ever since it had been given to the girl 2 hours previously, a reward for her being such a brave little girl at the hospital earlier in the day.

'There you go baby girl, now what story do you want tonight?'

'One about bears, like the one you gave me.'

'Ok, how about Goldilocks and the three bears.'

'Yay!' was the excited reply

With that Richard grabbed the book of fairytales off the shelf and flicked to the right page. Snuggling down on the bed next to the little girl, he began to read, adding voices to each character, causing giggles to erupt from the little girl, especially when he put on Goldilocks high falsetto voice.

By the time the blonde haired porridge thief was woken up and ran away from the house, the little girl as struggling to keep her eyes open.

'Night, Night my baby girl, sleep tight.' Whispered Richard as he eased himself off the bed, being careful not to jolt the sleepy girl.

'Night, night daddy, love you.' came the sleepy reply.

'Love you too my darling.' and after a kiss on the forehead, and a deep breath Richard left the room pulling the door to behind him.

Leaning against the wall Richard took a moment to regain his equilibrium after having been called daddy by the little girl that he wished with all his heart as his. It was a bitter sweet experience.

Eventually he pushed himself off the wall and made his way down the hall, stopping at Tom's room, as he saw the pre-teen sitting on the floor building god knows what out of his Lego.

'Hey, what you making?'

'Not sure yet, might be a racing car or a fighter jet, haven't decided yet.'

'Can I help?' I'm good at making houses.'

'You can make a station, I've decided it's gonna be a train.'

'OK.' With that the pair worked in a comfortable silence for a while, which was occasionally broken by a construction question.

'So, how was school today?' as the eventual ice-breaker

'Ok.'

'Nothing interesting happen.'

'Its school,' came the somewhat sarcastic reply

'Yeah, alright you've got a point there', chuckled Richard, 'so if it wasn't school, what happened to upset you?'

'I'm not upset!' came the indignant reply.

'Ok annoyed then, look, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but something's wrong. You were quiet all through dinner, even though I know that you had swimming today which means we normally get a complete account of what happen and you've got your Lego out which you haven't played with in months since you decided that it was for babies. You don't have to help me but you never know it might help.'

A pause a deep breath and then,

'Ok, well there's this boy in my class Sam, and I thought he was my friend, I mean we play football at break every day, but today we were playing football, and he kicked the ball and it broke one of the windows. When the teacher asked who done it, he blamed me and I tried to tell her I didn't do it, but she didn't listen and none of my other fiends said anything.

So I got in trouble and now I'm not allowed to go swimming next week, and she said that if I just admitted it, then I wouldn't have got in trouble and it's just not fair, I didn't do anything wrong. I was nowhere near the ball and so now I don't get to go swimming next week, and when mm finds out she'll get angry at me. And it's just not fair!'

The large run on sentence finally ended, and by the end of it the young boy looked close to tears, at the unfairness of the situation.

'Alright ho about this, I'll talk to your mum, but you still have to tell her what happened ok everything, and then we'll see what we can do about swimming next week, ok, and if the school still says that you can't go then I promise that I'll take you swimming myself. How does that sound?'

'Yeah, thanks Richard that's great.' Was Tom's reply a broad grin on his face.

'Well come on no, time for bed, pyjamas and teeth.'

Such was the boy's good mood that he didn't even attempt to protest at having a bed time, and he started to get ready for bed.

He was just leaving the room to brush his teeth, when he turned round casually.

'Richard'

'Yes'

'Even if the school does let me, will you still take me swimming?'

'If you want, now go teeth.'

It wasn't long until the youngest Lewis male was tucked up in bed and well on his way to the land of nod.

Walking down the stairs and into the kitchen, Richard couldn't help but stop and watch Janine bustle around the kitchen, obviously in the middle of three things at once, as usual. Stepping into the kitchen he took over unloading the dishwasher, leaving Janine to concentrate on the pack lunches.

'Charlotte asleep?'

'Yeah, and she had the painkillers so she should be alright. Tom's asleep as well.'

'Really, how'd you manage that? Was he alright, he was very quiet tonight.'

'Not really no.' was the response before he repeated the tale to Janine.

'I'll go to the school tomorrow and sort it out, I was gonna take the day off anyway'

They worked together for a few minutes longer, making small talk before Ellie, who was working at the kitchen called out.

'Hey Richard, can you give me a hand?

'Hey, what about me, or have you replaced your mum with a younger model?'

'It's trigonometry.'

'Fair enough, that's Richards's domain' chuckled Janie

Richard couldn't help the smile on his face as he made his way to the table; he loved the domestic routine that he was part of whenever he was in this house.

'So what have you got to do?'

'Pythagoras theory'

'That's the a2 + b2 = c2 thing isn't it.'

Half an hour later and the pair were still sat at the table, completing problem after problem. Janine by now had finished in the kitchen and was now picking up all the bits and bobs scattered around the downstairs, which seem to acuminate in the presence of children, with a smile on her face.

'She called him dad.'

Turing round to face her oldest son, who stood in the doorway of the sitting room, Janine was unsure as to where this conversation was going

'What?'

'Charlotte today, when he was tucking her in, she called him Dad, well Daddy but still. I mean it's understandable he's been around since she was a baby, where as Dad is just someone she's sees once or twice a year, especially now he's in Spain.'

'Oh, well I'll talk to hear, explain things.'

'No that wasn't what I meant, I'm not explaining this well.' Running his hand through his hair, Michael sat down and tried again.

'Look, what I'm trying to say is that Richard's a nice guy, and we all like him, he's good for you. So if you want to get together with him, then, well we won't mind.'

'And if we're already together, what would you say about that?'

'Nothing, except congratulations and thank god you finally got it together. And not that I really want any details I mean you are still my mum, but how long?'

'About 6 months, we didn't want to say anything until we knew it would work, and we want to try to ease everyone into the idea.'

'And will it work?'

'Yeah I think it might.' Janine couldn't help the soft smile that graced her face at this moment. It wasn't the younger kids she was worried about, but Michael and his reaction, and this was more than she ever hoped.

'Well that's good.' And with that the university student stood up and made his way upstairs. Leaving a slightly bewildered Janine in his wake.

'Hey Mum, you alright?'

'Yeah sure, sorry just thinking, you off to bed?'

'Yeah, see you in the morning.'

'Night Ellie.'

'Night Mum.

The next few hours, for the police officers, were spent on the sofa, with the tele playing quietly in the background as they sat in each other's arms. Janine resting her head on Richards's chest, as they sipped their glasses of red wine, and talked, unwinding after the stressful day that had occurred. The conversation was regularly paused as they couldn't help but fulfil the need to kiss the other. A need that felt all the more acute after having to refrain during the day.

It was after 11 when Richard broached the subject of him going home.

'Stay.' Was Janine's response.

'What?'

'You have a change of clothes in the car right, so I am asking you if you want to stay the night. With me.'

'What about the kids?'

'Let's just say I had an enlightening conversation with Michael, so is that a yes.'

'Yes.'

**AN: Ok well that's the story finished with. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story, which randomly came to me in the middle of the night.**

**Just to clarify, I don't own blue murder, any of the characters or any of the brands that were mentioned. Now that's cleared up, I just want to say thank you for reading, and if you could possibly review I would like to hear your thoughts.**


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